Product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions to improve your company’s quality control

As companies expand and innovate, product management can become a challenge. It can even be a bottleneck in your processes or reduce your rate of expansion. Plus, the complexity of product management can end up costing you in both time and money.

Product lifestyle management (PLM) solutions can help you to improve your processes, product, and ultimately quality. Read on to see if PLM is right for you.

What is PLM?

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing complex product information, engineering, and manufacturing workflows and collaboration. It spans from your product concept to its end-of-life.

The main goal of PLM is to integrate staff, processes, business systems, and information. Through this integration, PLM supports the collaborative creation, management, dissemination, and use-of-product definition.

Instead of looking at just one part of the product management cycle, PLM allows you to oversee everything holistically. The process ensures information centralization. This means that staff, management, design and supply partners, customers, etc. are all on the same page and have the same up-to-date information.

Further, PLM promotes stricter quality control. All products must pass through a gate inspection check and testing before moving to the next stage for product design, manufacturing, or shipping.

Benefits of PLM

PLM solutions can support the entire product lifecycle. As such, businesses can align separate departments and improve workflows, resulting in significant bottom-line savings. Examples of specific business benefits include:

• Cost-saving: Lower operational costs through streamlined production processes and best practices. You can also reduce management costs through uniform and integrated solutions.
• Efficiency: PLM helps to accelerate time-to-value, make your product development processes more efficient, and break down silos. The result: you can deliver products to market faster.
• Collaboration: Users improve collaboration by sharing contract data, requisitions and purchase orders. They also maintain a collective experience across many product functions and well-defined product processes.
• Quality control: All business activities have the same look and feel. There is consistent infrastructure from the back office to the front office. And integration maximizes product visibility and control and ensures compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Risk reduction: Improved data integrity and quality controls reduce risks throughout the production process, and after the product ships.
• Customer satisfaction: Adaptable user experience and design ensure higher user adoption rates, and ultimately happier, returning customers.

4 signs you're ready for PLM

• #1: You're missing out on fast-moving opportunities Are you spending so much time managing products that you can't pursue exciting new opportunities? HQTS PLM assigns a full-time New Product Manager and a team to manage calendars and control workflows. This helps our customers integrate processes that make it easier to identify and capitalize on profitable new ventures.
• #2: You're spending more time on daily product activities Is it taking longer to manage key activities, such as coordinating several suppliers or going through your workflows? PLM integrates solutions and data into one unit, making it easier for product development.
• #3: You have many unanswered business questions Can you easily answer important questions about your business – such as what is the pass rate of all your factories? If not, segregated information and a lack of access to metrics and KPIs may be holding you back. PLM is designed to address these challenges.
• #4: You have runaway product development processes Are there areas where your processes are getting away from you? Maybe it's harder for you to manage inventory, satisfy customers, or keep costs in check. If so, your product development processes may need to be restructured to accommodate growth or changing priorities – a natural fit for PLM.

Successful PLM through strong partnerships

It can be a challenge for retailers to implement PLM solutions effectively and efficiently. Products require quick launches, sometimes within six months or less. There is often a lack of engineering resources for sourcing, design, and manufacturing. And ultimately, retailers need to move quickly to adapt to the entire supply chain process.

By creating a great partnership, your business can implement PLM without losing sight of your bottom line!

HQTS has the right skills, including engineering, testing resources, and solutions for retail “end-to-end” product management. We can help you to move quickly and address all aspects of sourcing, quotes, samples, quality assurance, supplier management, and supply chain touchpoints along the way.

About HQTS

With over 25 years of experience in quality assurance, HQTS is ready to help your business build strong and meaningful supplier relationships across Asia. Our many service locations are ready to be your one-stop shop for your inspection needs, including factory audits, production monitoring, pre-shipment and sorting inspections, and everything in between. This will allow you to know exactly what's happening on the ground and keep close tabs on your suppliers. Contact us today to find out how we can help you navigate current quality control challenges.

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You can also contact the HQTS Team: (+86) 400 611 2125 | [email protected]

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